Investigations continue on the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, after a rifle was aimed at him with an intention to shoot on Sunday, September 15.
The ex POTUS, 78, was on the golf course at the Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida when shots rang out.
He was immediately taken to safety and was soon after declared by his team to be “safe,” while a suspect has been apprehended after a gun was also found nearby.
Here’s what we know about the arrested suspect Ryan Wesley Routh, the reaction from Trump’s family, and new details on what happened…
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Who is Ryan Wesley Routh?
Ryan Wesley Routh is a 58-year-old man who was last known to be living in Hawai’i, and was the man caught with the AK-47 rifle that the FBI has claimed was intended to be used to assassinate the former President.
Routh has an arrest record spanning back all the way to the 1990s. He is a native of North California and his record includes drug possession, driving without a license, expired inspection, and operating a vehicle without insurance.
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His records state that he moved to Hawai’i in 2017 and, per a supposed LinkedIn belonging to the suspect, started another housing company in the state named Camp Box Honolulu in 2018.
Routh was previously registered as an “unaffiliated” voter in 2012, but records show he voted in North Carolina’s Democratic primaries earlier this year.
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He was also particularly active on social media, and claimed on X that he had voted for Trump in 2016 but withdrew his support later on (his account has since been suspended), having expressed disdain for him since.
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After the first assassination attempt, he also called for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit with the victims of the shooting because “Trump will never do anything.”
He was also seen protesting in Kyiv, Ukraine after Russia invaded the country in 2022, and self-published a book titled Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity.
What has Trump’s family said about the second assassination attempt?
Many members of Trump’s family have yet to speak out about the incident. His daughter Ivanka has been spotted out with her family in Florida since, while Melania has not yet shared a statement (she did after the first assassination attempt on her husband).
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Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, has frequently been tweeting about the incident, sharing one of the first updates on his father. “Again folks! SHOTS FIRED at Trump Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.”
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“An AK-47 was discovered in the bushes, per local law enforcement. The Trump campaign has released a statement confirming former President Trump is safe.” He confessed later that it was “getting really old” to have a conversation about it with his children.
Are there new updates on the Trump assassination case?
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Not long before Routh was charged with two counts of illegal firearms posession, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw confirmed in an interview with Fox News that the suspect actually did not fire a weapon.
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He confirmed that the gunshots came from a Secret Service agent that opened fire after seeing an assault rifle poking out through the bushes, although it is unclear what they hit.
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ABC News shared an update as well, stating that the former President was on the 5th hole of the course when someone yelled out “gun.” His detail quickly surrounded him and took him to a predetermined safe location.
